The San Diego Padres have a chance to end the season strong, but Mike Shildt needs to make small adjustments to make it happen.

When the work was finished, and five trades involving 22 players had been executed within six hours, A.J. Preller's peers called him everything from a "lunatic" to a "genius," a divergence befitting Major League Baseball's most polarizing executive.

Since the trade, the A's have had all of one save situation on their schedule, which came last Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles. Trailing 2-1 entering the top of the ninth, the A's scored twice to take a 3-2 lead, and decided to leave right-hander Elvis Alvarado in the game since manager Mark Kotsay liked how he was throwing the ball.